Rose Series Mission

Mission Statement

The ASA Rose Series in Sociology publishes highly visible, accessible books that integrate specific substantive areas in sociology. The books are designed to offer synthetic analyses of these fields, challenge prevailing paradigms, and/or offer fresh views of enduring controversies. The authors are typically senior scholars who work with or review the best available evidence, and utilize this evidential foundation to develop and defend their analysis. In most cases the arguments are extended to address contemporary public issues, and therefore reflect on or contribute to public policy. Because of their broad scope and policy relevance, the volumes published in the Rose Series are disseminated in areas beyond their focus to the broader professional and intellectual communities.

The Rose Series offers its authors a unique opportunity to combine the intellectual rigor associated with refereed journals, the visibility of publishing with a major press, and the benefit of a sustained marketing campaign that extends beyond sociology into cognate disciplines and relevant policy circles. The books are jointly published by the Russell Sage Foundation and the American Sociological Association, and they receive the most thorough editing available in academic book publishing. Authors are signed to contracts with an advance on the basis of a book proposal reviewed by each of the seven editors of the series, usually after several substantive exchanges about how the book will be constructed. A mid-course review (scheduled once drafts of the core of the book are complete) includes careful reading by at least two editors, a public colloquium on the book’s content before a qualified professional audience, and a detailed one-day critical discussion with the editors. The final draft is sent to two top scholars who are lavishly rewarded for a detailed, lengthy and timely review. The finished manuscript is meticulously edited by professional copy-editors. In addition to the national and international marketing that Russell Sage undertakes, many titles are also the subject of “Author Meets Critics” sessions at the American Sociological Association annual meetings.